Homework

Homework

At Hetton School we believe that homework plays an important role in supporting and enriching the learning that takes place in classrooms on a daily basis. Of course for a variety of reasons not all ‘homework’ can take place at home and so for this reason the library is available before school from 8am, at break, at lunch and after school until 4pm.

Aims

• To ensure that all students at Hetton School can fulfil their right to access extended learning.
• Develop a culture of taking responsibility for one’s own learning and success.
• Encourage students to link effective study skills and self-discipline with higher levels of achievement.
• Encourage students to develop transferable skills which will support learning in both the short and longer term; teamwork, planning, research, presentation, initiative, time-management etc.
• Provide opportunities for consolidating previous learning or developing new skills which can support future learning.
• Encourage students as they get older to develop the confidence and self-discipline needed to study independently and prepare them for the next phase of education.
• Provide opportunities for parents, carers, pupils and the school to work in partnership.
• Provide opportunities for assessing and evaluating work that has previously been undertaken in the classroom.
• Promote the use of the Student Planners as a means of planning work schedules.

Guidelines

• Homework tasks must be available to all students. If it is an online homework task, provision must be made for students to do it in school to counter the digital divide
• Homework tasks must be referred to regularly by the teacher, whether set in that lesson or not
• Teachers must ensure students write the homework task and the deadline date into their planners
• Students must be able to access study support opportunities before school, during lunch and after school in order to complete homework tasks. The library is available, but opening a classroom can be more productive
• Teachers must issue an achievement point given to every student who completes a homework task to a good standard, and an additional point can be awarded to any that complete work to an outstanding level
• Students must receive appropriate feedback about how successful they have been in the homework task undertaken
• In KS3 students must have at least 5 school days to do a homework task
• In KS4 students must have at least 3 school days to do a homework task
• All homework tasks are compulsory, but in KS4 optional additional tasks may also be made available to students
• All departments should develop their own specific homework policy based on the guidelines given above, but follow-ups to non-completion should be dealt with as stated in the policy below: